Fix your eyes on Jesus

Fixing your eyes on Jesus doesn't mean concentrating on Him so diligently that you eventually collapse from exhaustion. Even when a person's job demands momentary total absorption, he can still love his marriage partner with great steadiness and consistence. And your relationship with the Lord is the same: The continuity of your life will be a matter first of heart, of unchanging purpose, of unswerving direction. Continuity is essential for anything: any good work of art, any good project, any good life. Once you've fixed your eyes on Jesus, let there start to be about you a sense of consistency, reliability, unbrokenness. My eyes are ever on the Lord (Psalm 25:15). It's the way Jesus is -- "the same yesterday and today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). And He continually has His eye fixed on you. His eyes continually saw your past: "You created my inmost being: you knit me together in my mother's womb. Your eyes saw my unformed body" (Psalm 139:13, 16). His eyes continually see your present: "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry" (Psalm 34:15). His eyes continually see your future: "He does not take his eyes off the righteous; he enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever" (Job 36:7). Oh, how steady, how consistent, how reliable is your Lord Jesus! His love is unchanging (Jeremiah 31:3). His Word is unchanging (1 Peter 1:24-25). His throne is unchanging (Hebrews 1:8). His salvation is unchanging (Hebrews 7:24-25). His gifts to you are unchanging (James 1:17). He Himself is unchanging (Malachi 3:6). And you want to be like Jesus. Do you sense that your life has a steadiness to it, a continuity, a consistency? Or do you want it to? What is it about your life that's up-and-down? Your weight? Join Weight Watchers or some other group to hold you accountable. Your affection for your marriage partner, roommate, someone else close? Ask a steady, older, godly person to disciple you. Meet with that one regularly, confess your problem, solicit prayer, and report each time how you're doing. Your emotions? Get a physical checkup, telling your doctor your specific symptoms. Your Bible reading and prayer life? Join a small group (four to eight people) to whom you can answer. Ask to be checked up on. Wherever in yourself you sense a tendency to instability, quickly reach to an outside source and deliberately build in consistency. The point is, begin to mold your life to His; start to reflect Him. "Seek his face always" (Psalm 105:4). Soon -- sooner than you expect -- you, too, will begin to project His kind of wonderful reliability, flow, steadiness, dependability, continuity. "Continue in the grace of God"! (Acts 13:43) "Continue in his kindness"! (Romans 11:22) "Continue in your faith"! (Colossians 1:23) "Continue to live in him"! (Colossians 2:6) "Continue in faith, love and holiness"! (1 Timothy 2:15) "Continue in what you have learned"! (2 Timothy 3:14) "Continue in him"! (1 John 2:28) Fix your eyes on Jesus. Then you can sing, Moment by moment I'm kept in His love; Moment by moment I've life from above; Looking to Jesus till glory doth shine -- Moment by moment, O Lord, I am Thine. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let's pray together. O Lord, make me a steady person, focusing on the One who delivers my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling (Psalm 116:8). You will establish, strengthen, settle me. You will hold me firm, O Abba Father. You will make Proverbs 4:25 and 27 come true for me: Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil. I trust You for this. Fix my eyes on You. In Jesus' name, amen. ____________ "Moment by Moment," words by Daniel W. White; music by May Whittle Moody.